HRD FINE ART

Introduction

HRD Fine Art is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Korean artist Joonhyung Lee, from January 26 through February 24. Previously showcased at two group exhibitions at HRD, namely "Framework" in 2022 and "Interface" in 2023, this exhibition will be his first solo presentation in Japan.

Born in 1976 in Seoul, Lee graduated from Seoul University, before acquiring MFA at Central Saint Martins in London and DFA at Seoul University.

Working primarily with painting, Lee has been extensively questioning human emotions and its relations with facial expressions, as well as the roles and meanings we tend to see in visual images of human bodies and faces. A seemingly humorous series of painting titled "Chapter 11," for example, capturing agonizing faces of competitive divers plunging towards the water, contains deep-digging questions on humanity.

In 2014, Lee created a video work titled "Out of Frame." This work is a recording of his life-risking solo paddling voyage down the Han River in Seoul on a raft he made by using timbers from disassembled painting canvas stretchers. Through this experimental and performative work Lee attempted to rattle the framework of "painting," reinvestigating the concept of painting and art expression.

At the upcoming Kyoto exhibition, Lee presents his recent homonymous paintings based on the video work "Out of Frame," depicting the splashes of water recorded as moving image using black Chinese ink. With these works the artist revisits "painting," by way of video and performance involving extreme physical acts, through which he tried to dismantle or dislocate "painting." Thus, the artworks presented here could be seen as a culmination of Joonhyung Lee's daring artistic adventures navigating through the waves of the human world.